Fellow inmate says Yates offered tips on how to feign mental illness

February 24, 2006|THE LATEST: UPDATES ON ONGOING NATIONAL AND WORLD STORIES

HOUSTON (AP) -- Andrea Yates once advised a fellow inmate that she could escape prosecution by pretending to be mentally ill and persuading a psychiatrist she suffered from serious disorders, according to court documents filed Thursday by prosecutors. Felicia Doe, who spent four days in a jail block with Yates in 2002, told prosecutors last year that Yates instructed her not to eat, not to speak properly and not to be friendly or open in front of people if she wanted to "beat her case." Yates, who is awaiting a new trial in the drowning of her young children, allegedly said "if you could get the jail psychiatrist on your side, they could testify to your mental health, and they couldn't prosecute you if you were sick," according to the documents, which describe interviews with witnesses who could be called during Yates' trial. Yates' defense attorney, George Parham, called the account "sad and ludicrous." "That is absolutely so bogus, it doesn't even deserve a response," he said. "That discounts the medications that this woman was on, the mental illness she suffers from." Yates, 41, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. During her 2002 trial, psychiatrists testified Yates suffered from schizophrenia and postpartum depression, but expert witnesses disagreed over the severity of her illness. A jury rejected Yates' original insanity defense and sentenced her to life in prison for the drowning of three of her five children ages 7, 5 and 6 months. Her convictions were overturned last year based on false testimony by an expert witness.